Radionuclides such as F-18, N-13, O-15, and C-11 can be produced by a variety of techniques and for a variety of purposes. An increasingly important radionuclide is the F-18 (18F−) ion, which has a half-life of 109.8 minutes. F-18 is typically produced by operating a cyclotron to proton-bombard stable O-18 enriched water (H218O), according to the nuclear reaction 18O(p,n)18F. After bombardment, the F-18 can be recovered from the water. For at least the past two decades, F-18 has been produced for use in the chemical synthesis of the radiopharmaceutical fluorodeoxyglucose (2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose, or FDG), a radioactive sugar. FDG is used in positron emission tomography (PET) scanning. PET is utilized in nuclear medicine as a metabolic imaging modality employed to diagnose, stage, and restage several cancer types. These cancer types include those for which the Medicare program currently provides reimbursement for treatment thereof, such as lung (non-small cell/SPN), colorectal, melanoma, lymphoma, head and neck (excluding brain and thyroid), esophageal, and breast malignancies. When FDG is administered to a patient, typically by intravenous means, the F-18 label decays through the emission of positrons. The positrons collide with electrons and are annihilated via matter-antimatter interaction to produce gamma rays. A PET scanning device can detect these gamma rays and generate a diagnostically viable image useful for planning surgery, chemotherapy, or radiotherapy treatment.
It is estimated that the cost to provide a typical FDG dose is about 30% of the cost to perform a PET scan, and the cost to produce F-18 is about 66% of the cost to provide the FDG dose derived therefrom. Thus, according to this estimate, the cyclotron operation represents about 20% of the cost of the PET scan. If the cost of F-18 could be lowered by a factor of two, the cost of PET scans would be reduced by 10%. Considering that about 350,000 PET scans are performed per year, this cost reduction could potentially result in annual savings of tens of millions of dollars. Thus, any improvement in F-18 production techniques that results in greater efficiency or otherwise lowers costs is highly desirable and the subject of ongoing research efforts.
At the present time, about half of the accelerators such as cyclotrons employed in the production of F-18 are located at commercial distribution centers, and the other half are located in hospitals. The full production potential of these accelerators is not realized, at least in part because current target system technology cannot dissipate the heat that would be produced were the full available beam current to be used. About one of every 2,000 protons stopping in the target water produces the desired nuclear reaction, and the rest of the protons simply deposit heat. It is this heat that limits the amount of radioactive product that can be produced in a given amount of time. State-of-the-art target water volumes are typically about 1–3 cm3, and typically can handle up to about 500 W of beam power. In a few cases, up to 800 W of beam power has been attained. Commercially available cyclotrons capable of providing 10–20 MeV proton beam energy, are actually capable of delivering twice the beam power that their respective targets are able to safely dissipate. It is proposed herein that, in comparison to conventional targets, if target system technology could be developed so as to tolerate increased beam power by a factor or two or more, the production of F-18 could at the least be potentially doubled, and the above-estimated cost savings could be realized.
In most conventional batch target systems, a target volume includes a metal window on its front side in alignment with a proton beam source, and typically is partially filled with target water from the bottom thereof to a level at or above that of the beam strike. If beam power were applied to a completely filled conventional target, boiling in the target volume would cause a very rapid rise in pressure due to the sudden appearance of vapor bubbles. As a result, target pressure will dramatically increase, thereby causing the window to plastically deform until it ruptures or otherwise fails. Thus, the conventional target is typically incompletely filled and sealed such that the mass of water therein is fixed. As a result, the conventional target is limited to a single optimum beam power level that prevents destruction, and this optimum power level does not correspond to the most efficient production of radionuclides for the given target system and beam source and for all beam power levels. In addition, because the bottom of the conventional target is sealed, the target water expands upwardly when heated into a reflux chamber, thereby reducing the vapor space available for heat transfer. Moreover, such conventional targets have the disadvantage of introducing pressurizing gas molecules other than water vapor into the target volume, which can be potentially contaminating and which impedes heat transfer efficiency.
An opposite approach to reducing the cost of F-18 production is to use a low-energy (8 MeV), high current (100–150 mA) proton beam, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,917,874. A cooled target volume is connected to a top conduit and a bottom conduit. A front side of the target is defined by a thin (6 μm) foil window aligned with the proton beam generated by a cyclotron. The window is supported by a perforated grid for protection against the high pressure and heat resulting from the proton beam. The target volume is sized to enable its entire contents to be irradiated. A sample of O-18 enriched water to be irradiated is injected into the target volume through the top conduit instead of from the bottom. The resulting F-18 is discharged through the bottom conduit by supplying helium through the top conduit. Such target systems as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,917,874, deliberately designed for use in conjunction with a low-power beam source, cannot take advantage of the full power available from commercially available high-power beam sources.
It would therefore be advantageous to provide a new batch target device and associated radionuclide production apparatus and method that are compatible with the full range of beam power commercially available and are characterized by improved efficiencies, performance and radionuclide yield.